Skip to main content

Trade Fair

We were walking by the river in Tirana on Sunday and noticed a group of stalls that had been set up by the road. It turned out to be a trade fair organised by Oxfam who have been working with farmers in rural Albania, and had set up this fair as a way for those farmers to get their goods to the public.

There was a lot of wine on sale and plenty of raki too, including a very vivid green example made from mulberry. Cheese, honey, herbs and woven goods made up the rest. I was briefly tempted by the mulberry raki, but in the end decided against it.

Comments

ITS said…
"Raki mani 40 grade, balli i kazanit", mulberry raki is da bomb!
olli said…
OK - next time I'll buy some.
Anonymous said…
Glad to see the fairs are still being organised! Thanks for mentioning this.
Anonymous said…
We tried raki made with walnuts when we were here. Strong, strong stuff ... not for the faint of heart.
olli said…
Haven't come across the walnut stuff. I did try the raki mani tonight at a friend's house. It was a much more subdued shade of green - apparently from the mulberry leaf. Quite an interesting aftertaste. My favourite is still pear though.

Popular posts from this blog

Dy Rame Per Tirane

I was watching Top Channel last night, first the news, then Fiks Fare. According to them Tirana's citizens now have a choice not only between Rama and Olldashi, but also between Rama and Rama. A minor right-wing faction, Parti 'Balli Kombetar' , submitted papers to the election authorities registering their candidate, Akile Rama. The people on Fiks Fare got hold of the papers and sent a reporter and camera team to the address listed for Mr A Rama. After much ringing of the bell the gate was reluctantly opened by a middle-aged woman who refused to speak to the reporter and tried to close the gate on her. Back in the studio Saimiri and Doctori - the two presenters of Fiks Fare - revealed that Mr Akile Rama was 73 years old, in hospital, and did not know he was now a candidate for mayor. They also compared two documents - the papers submitted on his behalf, and a genuine document he had signed. The signatures were not even remotely similar. There was an interview with the lea...

Albania and the Perils of the 21st Century

Another article on religion in Albania appeared yesterday. Patrick Poole, writing in the American Thinker , argues that Saudi funding for the construction of mosques and the training of imams is a threat to Albania, since these mosques and imams reflect the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia.

Only Way is Up

Chatting with a taxi driver while back in Belfast a few months ago, he was intrigued when I told him that I was living in Albania. Did I think it was worth investing in property there, he enquired. Not unless you're prepared to risk losing your money, I replied. By the end of the journey he was considering Bulgaria instead. Despite the risks, some people are starting to invest in Albanian property. The Daily Telegraph reports on Ian Warburton who recently spent 29,000 GBP (around 40,000 EUR) on a one-bedroom apartment in a new development in Tirana. "Given its location, I don't see how it can fail to work," he said. The development is called Terra Nova and the apartments are being actively marketed as an investment opportunity by Barrasford and Bird , a UK property company. Here is their sales pitch for Albania: Albania shares the same stunning coastline as Croatia and Montenegro. However, Albania has better weather and prices are about a quarter of those compa...